NHI Delivers the 200th NH90 Helicopter

NHI celebrated today the 200th NH90 helicopter delivery. The 200th NH90, a TTH (Tactical Transport Helicopter) variant, was delivered officially to Belgian Defence and will be operated from Beauvechain Air Force Base by the 1st Wing. The handover ceremony took place during the annual NH90 Product Conference being held this year at the German Army Aviation School in Bückeburg, where the whole NH90 community of users and industry is gathered to share their experiences.

“In the name of NHI and its partner companies, I am really honoured to deliver this NH90 TTH to Belgium. With this versatile, safe and interoperable aircraft, NHI is proud to contribute to the enhancement of Belgian Defence capabilities”, said Vincent Dubrule, President of NHIndustries at the ceremony.

“This 200th delivery is the result of the efforts of industry to ramp up the delivery rate of the NH90 since this new generation helicopter is in high demand by its end users” Dubrule added.

“The NH90 program is now reaching its maturity phase with more than 50.000 flight hours logged in service in the most demanding conditions” declares Luigi Cereti, Managing Director of NHIndustries.

“The NH90 program is of great importance to Belgium as it will maintain our SAR service, provide an enlarged range of missions in support of the Navy and for the first time give us the ability to perform tactical troop transport missions. Furthermore, by joining this international program, Belgium is improving its helicopter interoperability” said Col Vandezande, Head of the NH90 program for Belgian Defence.

“The delivery of this third NH90 TTH today enables us to progress from initial training to the Operational Training and Evaluation phase” added Col Vandezande.

The NH90 Product Conference took place for the first time at the German Army Aviation School, Bückeburg, near Hanover.

“This School, with its 14 full flight mission simulators is the most modern Army Helicopter Training School in Europe, it is able to train pilots and crews on several types of new generation helicopters such as the NH90 and EC135” declares Col Baumgärtner Public Relations Officer of the Army Aviation School.

This facility will become the “International Helicopter training Centre” in July 2015 when it will start to train foreign military helicopter aircrews as well as continuing to train German flight and maintenance crews.

The NH90 is the optimal choice for modern operations thanks to its large full composite airframe, its excellent power-to-weight ratio; and its wide range of role equipment. It features a multiple redundant Fly-by-Wire flight control system that reduces pilot workload while improving flight safety. The NH90 is offered in two main variants, one dedicated to naval operations, the NH90NFH (Nato Frigate Helicopter) and a Tactical Transport Helicopter (TTH) for land operations. As of today, 200 Naval and Tactical transport variants have been delivered. They are in service in Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Greece, Oman, Australia and New Zealand.

The twin-engine, medium-size NH90 helicopter program is managed by the consortium NHIndustries, the Company owned by AgustaWestland (32%), Airbus Helicopters (62.5%), and Fokker (5.5%).